- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHarris Glenn Milstead
- Nickname
- Divvie
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Born Harris Glen Milstead just after the end of WWII, Baltimore's most outrageous resident eventually became the international icon of bad taste cinema, as the always shocking and highly-entertaining transvestite performer Divine.
Milstead met maverick film director John Waters in high school in Baltimore. The two became good friends and combined to star in and direct several ultra-low-budget, taboo-breaking cult films of the early 1970s. Their first efforts included Roman Candles (1967), Eat Your Makeup (1968), and Mondo Trasho (1969)....however, their most infamous work together was the amazing Pink Flamingos (1972), in which Divine starred as "Babs Johnson", the "filthiest person alive", living in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son, and voyeuristic daughter.
Divine also starred as career criminal Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble (1974), bored homemaker Francine Fishpaw in Polyester (1981), as outlaw gal Rosie Velez in Lust in the Dust (1984) and in Waters' loving (but still slightly bizarre) salute to teen dance-TV shows as Ricki Lake's mother in the superb Hairspray (1988).
Milstead's health deteriorated due to to his obese frame, and he passed away in his sleep from a combination of heart attack and apnea in 1988.
- IMDb mini biography by: firehouse44@hotmail.com
- ParentsHarris Bernard MilsteadFrances Milstead (Vukovich)
- In Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), the character of "Ursula" (voiced by Pat Carroll) was based on her.
- Plays both a woman and a man (as the racist head of the station that airs the Corny Collins show) in his last film Hairspray (1988).
- Was contracted to play a recurring role as Uncle Otto in Married... with Children (1987), but died the day before the shooting of the episode (#2.22, "All in the Family"). James 'Gypsy' Haake was cast in Divine's place, and the episode was dedicated to Divine's memory.
- Died in his sleep from a combination of his weight and a disorder called sleep apnea, a disorder in which the body "forgets" to breathe or is unable to breathe due to blockage or excessive pressure. A classic symptom of this disorder is a sudden cessation of snoring for several seconds, indicating the inability to breathe.
- When creating his alter ego, Divine told makeup-artist friend Van Smith that he wanted a look that was a cross between Jayne Mansfield and Clarabelle the Clown from The Howdy Doody Show (1947).
- "All my life I wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor. Now Elizabeth Taylor looks like me".
- "He's one of my finest leading ladies" - Tab Hunter [who co-starred with Divine in Polyester (1981)].
- People who used to make fun are now fans. I had the last laugh.
- Of course the last thing my parents wanted was a son who wears a cocktail dress that glitters, but they've come around to it.
- My favorite part of dressing in drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to.
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